Book 7 Feature Review - Quest Guide

I have to admit that I am a little spoiled with all the add-ons and mods that WoW let me use to level.  So when I heard about the new Quest Guide that Turbine is adding to the game with Book 7 I jumped at a chance to take a look.

As many of you know, Volume II: Book 7 is the first free content patch since the release of Turbines successful first expansion, Mines of Moria.  The notes for the release are huge, with lots of changes coming in.  We will tackle some of these changes on Under the Banner in the next few weeks, but for now, lets look at a much needed new map addition to the game.

Quest Guide

As part of our new player revamp we’ve added a new way to view your quests. Players have long asked for a way to track their active quests in their radar window and world maps. Now you can! Our new quest guide works in combination with your quest tracker to give you direction and assistance on the 5 quests currently active in your tracker. Removing a quest from your tracker removes it from the guide. (Release Notes for Book 7)

Let’s start off with a few cool features of this new system.

Coordinates

First, they added coordinates to the map.  Many players have had the mishap of typing ;loc in kinship chat before.  Soon the kin would start making jokes about like, “Go right, more. . almost there.”  The ;loc command is the only way to find your position in the game right now.  Typically one would search for a quest objective by reading the quest and heading to the general area.  Well, to some quests texts, general area, is all of western Angmar.  You fire up your web browser, go to your favorite information site (which is sadly still very lacking in good sites at this time) and find a location for them. Then begins the walk so many paces, enter ;loc, make a correction.  Arg. . .

Now you simple use your mouse and scroll over the large map to find the spot.  Oh how I love this!  I only wish we had the option to make our own notes and/or way points.

Quest Item Locations

As far as my tests have shown this will NOT walk you right up to the item.  Instead it uses an area or general direction.  This is such a great time saver and greatly appreciated by many.  I can not begin to tell you how many times I was in the wrong area looking for boars to kill.  Now I can kill the correct boars, just on the other side of the road.

Flashing Indicator

Just under the mini map a notice will start to pulse when you are close to a quest objective.  It is rather subtle, so make sure to train yourself to watch for it.

Some have complained that this is making the game to easy.  IMHO I think it is worth the effort to but the fun back into the game.  Getting lost looking for an item is never fun.  And yes, LotRO is about the journey, I agree, more than most.  The Lore is fantastic, and we should never rush through things and miss the small details, but some of us have a limit to how much time we have.  This is just a small took that will make it a little more enjoyable for many.

A poster on the forums pointed out that the new system is not really different than alt tabbing out of the game, loading up a web site, finding the answer, then heading back in, only to have to alt tab over and over till you find it.  Again, the end-user result will be improved. 

Turbine knows that happy players are continuing subscribers, and those who will tell their friends.

I will be posting a short video to review some of the features as well.  It is rendering as I write this post